Oil-heating plant



Feb. 24. 1925. 1,527,73

. A. FISHER OIL HEATING PLANT Filed May 11, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 -VEI 11:1 wad/ask? A. FISHER OIL HEATING PLANT File d May 11, 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1 e 9 ea-122.5%?

Patented Feb. 24, 1925.

UNITED STATES ALFRED FISHER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS;

SYLVANIA FISHER, ADMINISTRATRIX OF SAID ALFRED FISHER, DECEASED.

OIL-HEATING PLANT.

Application filed May 11,. 1922. Serial No. 560,153.

To all whom 515 may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED F IsHER, av

' citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in an Oil-Heating Plant; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference be-' ing had to the accompanying drawings, and

to the numerals of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification. This invention relates to an oil heating system or plant and concerns itself primarily with the oil feeding system in which the oil or whatever liquid fuel is being used is pumped into a reservoir and flows by gravity into a furnace or fire box which in the present instance is of novel structure; the oil supply tank or source being connected with the reservoir in such a way that ordinary pressure in the reservoir may be constantly relieved and unusual pressure arising from the clogging or stopping of the gravity feed is relieved by a return flow of the liquid fuel to the tank. The invention further contemplates such a unit liquid fuel heating system that may be readily applied to coal burning furnaces and the like.

This invention comprises the novel mechanism and combinations hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out and defined in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings which illustrate the preferred embodiment of this invention and in which similar reference numerals refer to similar features in the different views: 7

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of the heating system or plant.

Figure 2 is a section through the oil reservoir upon an enlarged scale. V

Figure 3 is a top plan view of the blower and oil pump, upon an enlarged scale.

Figure 4 is an end elevational view of certain parts of the apparatus.

Figure 5 is a section through the fire box in which combustion takes place.

In referring now to the drawings which illustrate one embodiment of this invention, the reference numeral 1 represents the front wall of a furnace. If the furnace is not already designed for burning oil fuel, it may be readily equipped with such a fire box as shown in Figure 5 which is constructed of fire bricks 2 and surrounded and enclosed by a metal casing 3. The lnterlor of said fire box is supplied with heat absorbing balls or spheres 4 of fire clay or the like arranged so that the flame is directed thereagainst. In the illustrated fire box, these spheres are stacked so as to fill substantially the rear two thirds of the box and the flame is directed thereagainst through a pair of vertically spaced and oppositely curved deflectors or guides 5 and 6, which might be said to respectively curve divergently towards the top and bottom of the furnace box so that the flame will spread substantially across the front face of the heat absorbing spheres. And as the flame has considerable force it 'will be deflect-ed tangentially from one sphere to the adjacent sphere so that the same will be thoroughly disseminated throughout the heat absorbing spheres.

The front wall of the'flre box is provided with a tuyere 7 located in the medial horizontal plane between the deflectors 5 and 6. The tuyere also serves as an ingress port for the fuel oil as will later appear.

The tuyere 7 is connected to a blower 8 by means of theblast pipe 9 and to a fuel oil feed pipe 10 which communicates with an oil reservoir 11 into which the oil is pumped.

The fuel oil reservoir comprises a hollow metal cylinder 11 of tubular form having its ends closed by caps 12 which are screw threaded thereon. Short pipe sections 13 and 14 are threaded centrally into these caps and communicate with the interior of the reservoir. The fuel oil feed pipe 10 is connected to the pipe section 13 intermediate its ends; the outer end of said section 13 being connected with the reservoir feeding pipe 15 by means of the couplings'16, the short pipe section 17, and the arcuate coupling 18 which is located slightly above the reservoir so that the fluid head in the reservoir will not act against the force of the pump. The reservoir feeding pipe comprises a number of joined sections which lead to a pump 19 which is connected by means of a. pipe 20 to a fuel oil supply tank 21 which may be located in the earth.

The pipe section 14 projecting from the other end cap of the reservoir 11 is coupled intermediate its ends to a small drain pipe 22 provided with a suitable valve 23, and the outer end of said pipe section 14 is coupled to a larger safety drain pipe 24 by 34: or the like.

means of the coupling 25, the short pipe section 26 and the arcuate coupling 27 It should be noted that the short pipe section 26 is slightly longer than the section 17 so that the height of the fluid head in the ar cuate coupling 27 is slightly above that in the arcuate coupling 18. The drain pipe 24 consists of several joined sections that lead to the tank 21. The smaller drain pipe 22 is connected to the larger drain pipe by a pipe section 28.

The blower 8 and pump 19 are operated by a motor 29 connected by means of a belt 30 with a pulley 31 mounted upon a driving shaft opcratively connected to the blower and pump by suitable means.

The motor, blower and pump are all supported in compact form upon a base 32 from which rises a standard 33 to the top of which the reservoir 11 is secured by a metal bracket It should therefore be apparent that the described apparatus forms a compact unit which can readily be installed and applied for its intended function to any ordinary coal furnace or the like according to the foregoing description.

During the operation of the apparatus, the motor drives the blower to inject blasts of air through the tuyere- 7 and the pump 19 is operated to pump the liquid fuel from the tank 21 into the reservoir through the pipe 15. The fuel feeding pipe 10 is supplied by the oil thuswise pumped and the flow there through may be controlled by the valve 35. If the fuel oil should be pumped faster than it is fed to the furnace, slight excesses will betaken care of by the drain pipe 22 which returns the same to the tank, so no back pressure against the pump will occur and a steady uniform flow through the pipe 10 will result. But-if the excess is too great, so that it cannot be carried and returned by the small pipe 22, the oil will be forced to rise in the coupling 27 and be turned through the larger pipe 241. The valve 23 in the pipe 22 may be adjusted to increase or decrease the drain, and under normal operation the return flow through the pipe 22 will :be sufficient to prevent any back pressure will be pumped: WVhen thisyoil reaches a level in the top of the coupling 18 a small amount of back pressure will occur. But the force of the pump will overcome this small back pressure with the result that the oil will be forced to rise in the arcuate coupling 27 and flow back to the tank through the pipe 247.

It is therefore apparent that the drain pipes 22 and 24 will relieve the pressure head of the oil so that noinjurious back pressure against the pump will'result, and that the apparatus can continue to operate even though there is no oil being fed'to the furnace. Consequently the apparatus, es-

pecially the pump and motor, are safeguarded against injury anddamage which might result where their operation is overcome by b ack pressure.

It should also be notedthat any coal burning furnace may be readily equipped with my novel form of fire boX inwhich thefiame is directed against a mass of spherical heat absorbing elements which tangentially defleet the flame from one to the other for-producing a thorough dissemination of the flame.

I am aware that numerous detailsv of construction may be varied through a wide range without departing from the principles of this invention, and I therefore donot purpose limiting the patent granted otherwise than necessitated by the prior art.

I claim as my invention:

In a fuel oil feeding apparatus, a'base, a reservoir supported from said base, an oil supply tank, a pump on said base and connected with said tank pumping oil from said tank to said-reservoir, a gravity feed extending from said reservoir, a safety drain pipe extending from said reservoir to said tank and operative for drawing oil from said tank under abnormal pressure, and a second drain'pipe forming a by-path with the safety drain pipe for drawing oil from said reservoir under nor mal pressure.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALFRED FISHER.

Witnesses:

,CHAnLEs 'VV. HILLS, Jr.

OARL'roN HILL.

and reservoir for j 

